Family businesses offer international career opportunities

2014.30.6

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Family Business Career Day at PERI GmbH, Weissenhorn, Germany

Singapore, Ekaterinburg, Athens or Panama – just a few places where the formwork and scaffolding manufacturer PERI is supporting the creation of diverse construction projects. The company's head office is in Weissenhorn near Ulm. “Many family companies are to be found in rural areas. That is not the only reason that highly qualified skilled specialists and executive managers undervalue the international career opportunities we offer. Because we also usually work in lesser known fields, we tend to have a lower public profile. By arranging the Family Business Career Day we want, therefore, to inform candidates about the opportunities in our company and especially about potential positions around the world”, explained Alexander Schwörer, CEO of PERI.

An empirical study conducted by Technische Universität München (TUM) on behalf of the Foundation for Family Businesses (the largest in Germany with around 1,500 respondents) confirmed that the cliché of the family business limited to a region is firmly fixed in the minds of highly qualified skilled specialists and managers In terms of “internationality” the best talent finds large concerns more attractive than family businesses.

At the same time, however, the chance to work abroad is becoming increasingly important to the most talented applicants: “internationality” was ranked at number 5 out of the critical factors when choosing an employer. In the surveys conducted at the 2013 Career Day, 42.1 percent described global working opportunities as important.

“Family businesses are falsely often only associated with small operations”, says Stefan Klemm of the Entrepreneurs Club. “Many people only realised that they were looking at true global players when they came to the Family Business Career Day.” In his experience, family businesses tend to offer international career paths more often than non-family businesses. “Anyone who performs well and is interested will quickly be given responsibilities abroad”, adds Alexander Schwörer.

Overall, family businesses score very well with applicants: family businesses achieve higher marks than non-family businesses in ten of the 14 different requirements of a future workplace. They achieve top marks for good working atmosphere (98 percent of those surveyed), for the opportunity to work autonomously (97 percent) and flat hierarchies (94 percent).

40 large family companies from across Germany presendet themselves end of June at the “Family Business Career Day” at PERI. 600 candidates were selected from around 2,500 applicants – from graduates to people with years of professional experience. Come to Weissenhorn near Ulm and find out about specific career paths with family businesses and have personal interviews with the decision makers of the participating companies.

The Family Business Career Day is a joint initiative of leading family businesses, the Entrepreneurs Club and the Foundation for Family Businesses and has been held since 2006, alternating between north and south Germany. The 14th Family Business Career Day is being held on 14th November 2014 by the Tengelmann group in Mülheim an der Ruhr; on 26th June 2015 the event will be in Winnenden at Alfred Kärcher GmbH & Co. KG.